Stopping the pill and fertility awareness.

I’ve been on the pill for as long as I can remember. I can’t actually remember exactly when I started, but I think I was around 15 (this is a huge guess by the way). So that’s nearly ten years of altering my insides.

My relationship with the pill had been a very up and down one, I remember the first pill I was on was okay but ended up being stopped and so I had to move onto another one. The second one I was on was brilliant, I absolutely loved it. I felt wonderful on it, my periods stopped life was glorious.

Then the breakdown of a relationship made me decide in my messy mental state, that why should I be on the pill when I’m not with anyone and no one wants me? (I know I know, but there was no reasoning with me at the time).

I eventually became sexually active again, and because I’d rather rely on myself than any man, I wanted to get back on the pill. However, my doctor at the time wouldn’t put me back on my previous pill (heartbroken) and so I ended up on another one. This pill was quite frankly, the biggest load of sh*t. I ended up with such sporadic cycles, I never knew whether I was coming or going. This was probably one of the reasons I ended up pregnant whilst taking the the pill.

I did come off the pill when I found out I was pregnant with Grayson, and I didn’t start taking the pill again until I’d finished breastfeeding (which was when Grayson was around 9 months old). I was then put onto a brand new pill.

And here we are.

I’ve been back on the pill for almost a year, and although I’ve always had iffy mental health, Mark and I have become increasingly aware of how much this pill is messing with me. I’ve reached a point where I can’t live like this anymore and so I was in desperate need of an alternative.

Due to my traumatic birth, I physically couldn’t have a coil or anything along those lines and the whole point of coming off the pill is to better my mental health. I don’t mind relying on condoms, but I think the fear of getting pregnant would definitely sit firmly in my mind. That’s when I came across fertility awareness (I prefer calling it that over natural family planning).

Fertility awareness is where you monitor and record different fertility signals, which will help you to understand your menstrual cycle and work out when you’re most likely to get pregnant. If fertility awareness is followed correctly, it can be up to 99% affective.

After hours of research, and conversations with some lovely girls and buying a thermometer I’m finally ready. I’ve started tracking my cycles this past week, and so it’s all very new to me but I’m hoping that at around the 6 month mark the pill will be long gone from my system and I’ll be back to write you all a post on how I’m getting on!

Have any of you tried fertility awareness, and how have you found it?